ICONS Software

ICONS is an easy-to-learn software
program designed to support community-based conservation, biodiversity
information management and networking.

ICONS provides modules for managing
conservation-related information for the following categories:

Organizations

Persons

Peoples

Sources
(bibliographies; metadatabases; etc.)

Laws

Projects
and Events

Internet
Sites and Services

Geographic
Areas

Species

Data
Custodians

Metadata

Multimedia
Encyclopedia

In addition, ICONS provides you with a
number of lookup tables that contain terms used in the other modules which you
can use to create authority files, including tables for:

Acronyms

Countries

Geographic
keywords

Keywords

Habitats

Taxonomic
Ranks

ICONS is effective for managing
bibliographies, email and personal notes; organization and expertise data;
detailed project histories; legal information, species life history data and
their uses; and for the other categories listed above.

ICONS makes extensive use of
transactions, which allows you to create new categories of information and
attach them to records in your database: data values, cross-classifications,
notes and binary objects such as word-processed files, graphics, map files, and
sound files. You can perform full-text searches, and the system comes with tools
that will help you to index, filter and sort your records.

Within the flexible structure for
adding your own classifications and data, ICONS provides a fixed underlying data
structure that allows users adopting the software to easily share files, either
through diskettes, zip disks or other storage media, or by using the Internet.
Data entered into ICONS may also be exported in a number of common formats to be
shared with other programs, and the tables containing the data are left
accessible for easy attachment or export.

ICONS can be used:

to
assemble and electronically store the materials related to meetings, with
the full text of the materials, scanned images, and a participant's list;
which can be distributed at a meeting to provide a basis for further
networking;

by conservation organizations to
maintain conservation networks with contact and expertise information, a
document clearinghouse, project information, and detailed legal and
biological information on particular issues and regions;

by students or professionals to
manage research and education-related information and distributed in the
classroom;

to provide a database system that can
be used to store information that can be used in geographic information
analysis (GIS)

The system is being developed for use
in a number of indigenous knowledge, sustainable development and biodiversity
initiatives with IUCN - The World Conservation Union and others. We are making
the software freely available over the Internet in order to invite others to
evaluate ICONS and help us improve it, and to provide a tool that can be used in
conservation and sustainable development efforts.

ICONS comes with a small sample
database to provide some authority information and help guide you to some useful
formats for entering data. We have also prepared a database of over 100,000
records on bibliographic references, organizations, Internet sites, acronyms,
encyclopedic terms and species on the issues of biodiversity, indigenous
knowledge, community-based conservation, conservation biology and sustainable
development. We will make the database available for low-cost distribution on
CD-ROM and as a searchable database on the Internet. Our ultimate intention is
to foster the development of federations of organizations that maintain locally
controlled, high quality information sources in special-interest networks.

A run-time version of Access 2.0 is
installed so you can use ICONS on any personal computer running a Windows 3.1 or
higher operating system. If you have a full copy of Access and other tools, you
can mount ICONS on a local area network (LAN) or on an Internet server. We have
also designed ICONS to allow users with the full version of Access to modify
ICONS for their own use, such as constructing a user interface in a local
language. ICONS is fully compatible with GIS software capable of accessing the
ICONS data tables, and we are currently developing direct interfaces to GIS.
This version will also run under Windows 95, and a following version written for
Windows 95 and incorporating advanced Internet features is being developed.

The software is accompanied by a
manual with basic instructions on installation and use. This is a Beta release,
and we do not yet have on-line help, but we are developing an integrated help
system for the full release version. The installation package is 5.1 Mb, and
will require at least 11 Mb of hard disk space to install, and requires a
386-or-higher PC running Windows 3.1 or greater operating system.

Looking
for The
History of the
Las Cruces Trail and
Adjacent Canal Area?

A
Historic Review of the Events and Persons Associated with the Different
Trans-Isthmian Crossings and Routes in Panama
from the Camino Real and Las Cruces Trail, the construction of the Panama
Railroad and the subsequent construction and operation of the Panama Canal and
the Trans-Isthmian Highway

Graphics below may
be freely used for educational, personal or other non-commercial use provided
that the source is explicitly acknowledged. .

(c) Copyright
2002,
EoN Systems, S.A.
All Rights Reserved

Watch the site for
new additional high quality educational graphics in the near future

3368x2409 pixels - 389 kb

Outline map and ocean depth contours of the Republic of
Panama. Created from
SIG Republic 2000

1494x1062 pixels - 200 kb

Terrain map of the Republic of Panama. Has older provincial
boundaries. Created from SIG Republic 2000

2479x1756- pixels - 300 kb

Political Map Provinces and Comarcas with ocean depth
contours of the Republic of Panama. Based upon the latest political
modifications. Great for Powerpoint presentations. Created from
SIG Republic 2000

1903x2486 pixels - 704 kb

A low resolution image of a 36"x48" poster created
for IPAT promoting Tourism, Conservation and Scientific Research. Makes
a great 13"x19" color poster for the classroom.

5700 x 3900 pixels - 2 mb

A high resolution image of the Provinces and Indigenous
Comarcas of Panama, 2002
Makes a great 13" x 19" poster